Four south west London councillors were taken to court for nonpayment of council tax in 2016-2017, Freedom of Information requests have shown.
Councillors Jennie Mosley, Marie Hanson, Eve Allison and Jon Tolley all fell into arrears and were issued reminders and court summonses before being taken to court by their respective councils.
Cllr Hanson, a Conservative representing Queenstown ward, Wandsworth, said: “I want to tell my constituents just how sorry I am for making this mistake.
“I have paid what I owed in full and learned a bitter lesson.
“I sincerely hope local people will accept my apology and my promise that such a mistake will never happen again.
“Many people know that I am founder of a charity that supports disadvantaged young people and women and children who have been the victims of domestic violence.
“My focus at that time was on trying to make sure those in vulnerable, difficult and often traumatic situations received the help and support they needed.”
Cllr Tolley, a Lib Dem representing Grove Ward, Kingston, said: “Because I work at my business, a lot of my personal stuff just doesn’t get to me and that was one such thing. I didn’t even know this had gone to court – if I knew there was a summons, I would have acted on it immediately.”
He said as he had paid his rates at the same property, he’d thought he was clear.
“I wasn’t trying to run away from it. In fact, my voting record, I voted against pay increases for councillors, that isn’t my vibe,” he said.
“It’s quite interesting to see it from the inside because, as a councillor, if someone had come to me and said ‘I’m being taken to court for not paying my council tax’ I would have said ‘well, you should pay your council tax.”
“If it can go that far with an honest mistake then that’s an interesting thing to know and I’ll talk to people in a different way.”
“It happened, it shouldn’t have happened and I regret it happening. I paid the money off as soon as I realised there was an issue with it.”
Cllr Allison, a Conservative representing St Helen’s ward, Kensington & Chelsea, and Cllr Mosley, who represents Bishop’s ward in Lambeth for Labour, have both been approached for comment.
As well as the councillors who were taken to court, a councillor in Wandsworth, two councillors in Merton, and two councillors in Kensington and Chelsea received reminder notices but paid their outstanding balance off before a summons was issued.
Councillors are forbidden by the Local Government Finance Act from voting on council budgets – and setting council tax – if they miss two consecutive months of payments without taking steps to resolve the issue.
In all four cases that progressed to court, payment was made following the judgement so the councillors concerned were able to fulfil their duties.
